The return to French-speaking cinema in Angoulême with Gustave Eiffel and Eugénie Grandet

A spectacular film on the construction of the Eiffel Tower, an adaptation of Balzac, and ten feature films in competition: the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival, which takes place from August 24 to 29, hopes to set the tone for the back to cinema. For several years, he has been signing the end of the summer break for French-speaking cinema.

This year, despite a still very unfavorable context for cinemas, which are struggling to find their audience, this festival wants to prove that “the desire to go see movies“is still there, underlined the producer and actor Dominique Besnehard, one of the organizers. If the festival will not renew with the 40,000 spectators that it attracted before the pandemic, it hopes to exceed the 27,000 tickets of the year last 12,000 places have already been sold in presale.

As for the competition, the presidency of the jury has been entrusted to the actress and director Nicole Garcia, who will also show her latest film out of competition, Lovers, a romantic thriller starring Stacy Martin, Pierre Niney and Benoît Magimel.

In total, ten films are in the running for the Valois d’Or, including the thriller Black Box by Yann Gozlan, an investigation into an air crash, A story of love and desire by Leyla Bouzid, a romantic learning film between a Frenchman of Algerian origin and a Tunisian student in Paris, noticed in Cannes, or even Rose, by Aurélie Saada, one of the two members of the musical duo Brigitte, of which this is the first film.

The festival, which has in the past rewarded or launched future popular successes such as Untouchables (2011) or Guillaume and the boys, at the table! (2013), had crowned in 2020 Ibrahim by Samir Guesmi.

Out of competition, Eiffel, by Martin Bourboulon, will provide the opening show. This ambitious French production looks back on the construction of the Eiffel Tower, against the backdrop of a love story between an impetuous Gustave Eiffel (Romain Duris) and a young woman of the bourgeoisie (Emma Mackey). “A French story that should go around the world”, says Dominique Besnehard.

At the end of the day, the festival has scheduled Eugenie Grandet, adaptation of Balzac by Marc Dugain (The exchange of princesses). Angoulême, on the other hand, will have to do without the American star Sigourney Weaver, whose arrival had been announced but who was canceled due to a filming in Australia.

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